There be THINGS...that even a VAMPIRE fears!

[alexsarll]

Attempting to begin the day without breakfast is never easy (I have no idea how some of you manage it regularly). To learn on this empty stomach of your guest DJs' cancellation for the weekend, and then of another death...well, I could do without it, frankly.
(Not someone I think any of you would know, but he was a lovely bloke and the sort of person you just think is always going to be there. We weren't especially close - being me, I was always more friends with his flighty sidekick, and tbh it's more him for whom I'm feeling at present)
edit: I've moved an apostrophe in that paragraph, not because it was incorrectly placed but because I've had further information. I know they say your heroes always let you down, but does it have to be so literal? Next week, Alan Moore offers to go to the shops for me and then doesn't bring back any milk.

In happier news, Zodiac Mindwarp and Bill 'KLF' Drummond will be reading from their new book The Wild Highway and signing copies at Borders Books, Charing Cross Road, London at 6.30pm on August 25th. This is the sequel to the gloriously insane Bad Wisdom, in which they attempted to bring about world peace by taking an icon of Elvis to the North Pole. Now, they're retracing the steps of Heart of Darkness through the middle of a civil war.

A new blog is created every second, the news tells us. What it does not say is what proportion of those are worth reading, and what proportion consist solely of memes, wanting a sandwich and feeling :(

Obliquely inspired by Marna's life-after-death post last week, but emphasised by my own feeling that a total blood transfusion might just do the trick this morning:
[Poll #544962]

Comments

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

Ehhh - I do want to give blood, but there's my current blood pressure issue and another proviso on their guidelines about not donating if you have done IT with a boy who has in his turn ALSO done IT with a boy - I think for girls you can donate 12 months after said act but think they're not too keen on it either, but for boys, even if they're tested clear, you can't donate AT ALL EVER - but I guess they have to cover their backs somehow :(

Sorry to hear about your pals pal, er, pal. What a rub bloody time of it.

Breakfast is for wimps etc (but I have a leftover cake that my boss bought me yesterday so I am about to have it now except I supose it counts as elevenses which is far more civilised).

[missfrancesca.livejournal.com]

Boys who do it with boys can NEVER give blood??? Is that allowed?

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I think the blood transfusion in Tomb of Dracula must also have set me thinking about this. Now Wolfman's writing, it has improved a bit - though the EMphaSIS is still ALL over THE place. And there's a bit where Dracula regards London from the crags above which I can only assume to be set on Suicide Bridge.

I think you're right re: the rules on gayers and the girls who love them, but surely if the pressure of a liquid is high then taking some out helps?
(Yes, I dropped biology early. What of it?)

[missfrancesca.livejournal.com]

So why are you so keen to keep hold of your dead, rotting organs?

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I can't stomach the idea that my heart might power someone through a football match, or that my eyes might be used to watch a Coldplay concert.

[publicansdecoy.livejournal.com]

I should give blood really. But ewwwww needles.

-x-

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

Think of it in a positive light - you get free lemon squash and TUC BISCUITS!

[juliet]

Just don't look! They give you a local if you're worried about it hurting (though it doesn't anyway).

I have given blood once, just after I turned 18, when I was miraculously not anaemic. Then I went back every 6 months for the next 5 years, & was too anaemic every single time. Even when they lowered the threshold. And now I am not allowed to due to the girl-shagging-boy-who-shags-boys rule; otherwise I'd be continuing to go back every 6 months & neck a couple of iron tablets the day before...

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

(i'm not a b@stard really, but) i don't give blood because shortly after the only time i did i had a bit of a depressive episode and despite any sort of firm link between the two things in the back of my head i think "uh-oh, what if?" this is also the same reason i haven't tried to write a dissertation since...

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

That's fair enough, really; for various reasons it does hit some people harder than others. It's probably more sympathetic than my excuse, which is simply that I always hoped if I gave blood, it would be through someone gorgeous and preferably immortal biting my neck.

[miss-newham.livejournal.com]

Whenever I think "I should give blood!" there is some silly rule in the way, like having been to Africa in the last five years or having recently had my ears pierced... Fortunately I haven't done anything interesting for ever so long, so it must be about time now!

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

If 'minding large numbers of small children' isn't on the list, it surely should be - they're a veritable hotbed of disease!

[ex-dumbgenius.livejournal.com]

Yes, if you caught AIDS in Africa more than 5 years ago, it will have gone away by now, don't worry.

[innerbrat]

I just never get round to it.

My tattoos and shit have prevented me from doing in most of my adult life. It's been three months since I was allowed to this time.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Ooo that reminds me, I was going to announce to the world in general that I'm going to give blood on the next day it rains during commuting hours (and hence I won't be cycling anyway) at the West End Centre, and everyone is welcome to join me. I've done it lots and lots before, but I always seem to lose the card or change my address, and they never keep track of how many times I've given (you get a little card that comes in different colours according to how many times you've donated. I *must* well into blue by now but the one in my wallet is red)

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Given the clientele, announcing it here might not be much use.

[juliet]

I am inclined to the view that people who won't give blood or donate organs without a suitable excuse (the donation rules count, obv; also proper bad side-effects; 'not liking needles' doesn't unless you dislike them so much you'd refuse a blood transfusion/injection if you needed it for your own health) shouldn't get given blood or donated organs when they need them. Seems fair.

(I feel sufficiently badly about not being able to atm that I am seriously considering just lying on their form, esp since I strongly disapprove of the no-gay-blokes rule. OTOH I'd only be anaemic *again*, but at least I'd have tried properly!)

[publicansdecoy.livejournal.com]

Physical bad effects count, psychological ones don't?

-x-

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

They probably would let me give blood, although given I have sufficiently low blood pressure to pass out if I get out of bed too quickly, it might cause Bad Things.

Anyway, that may be linked to the breakfast, I can't imagine going without it any more - I didn't have breakfast for years; obv. when a student that was due to saying in bed until lunchtime, but during a number of jobs also.

Today I have had a slice of bread and marmalade, and a plum, and I'm going for lunch at noon because I feel dizzy.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

There's no need to gloat!

I think a greasy spoon lunch may be necessary but for now, I'm heading to the shop.

[rentaghost31.livejournal.com]

i would like to give blood but am lazy and have never got round to it. i realise this is inexcusable.
There was no option for this in your poll.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I did consider that and a 'vaguely meaning to get a donor card' box, but sod it, I'm sticking with five.

[tintintin.livejournal.com]

Woo! Zed and the Grand High Copromancer themselves! Perhaps I should take my Idlers to be signed...

[capitalflash.livejournal.com]

after an untimely death that sent shockwaves through livejournal and learning that he in turn had saved four people, i have strongly considered getting a donor card. in fact i picked one up last week at the gp and i just have to fill in the form.

blood giving was closed off to me after my last piercing, but it's been over two years now so i should really get myself to the hospital drop-in unit.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_moggy_/]

I did try to give blood once but embarrassingly I fainted - passing out lying down is wierd, your sight goes but you can still hear for a bit.

They didn't even use the blood they'd collected (nearly a full bag). There's some rule that partially filled bags aren't any good. I was so cross.

[ex-dumbgenius.livejournal.com]

Given that I am not allowed to give blood, I hate having to listen to "Give Blood" advertising. I doubt the television advertising claim that a majority of adults can give blood, and considered writing to ITC.

Blood drives make my blood boil.

[puzzled-anwen.livejournal.com]

Dude, I would do.

[stealthmunchkin.livejournal.com]

Don't have a donor card because I keep losing them. My family and friends all know my preferences though.

[perfectlyvague.livejournal.com]

I have a Boots advantage card with it on. I got 200 points for offering them my internal organs. Bargain. My family all know my preferences, but my mother would probably veto if she had the chance.

Just in case you think I'm heartless and miserly

[perfectlyvague.livejournal.com]

I only bleed half a pint at a time, which I'm told is useless, and no matter what I tell the nurses they always try and milk my arm for more and I end up with great big streaking dark purple bruises in my arm. Whenever they try to find a vein to do blood tests on me it normally takes them 30 minutes and three failed attempts. If they weren't so vicious and a bit less desperate about it I might try again, but they really hurt me last time.

Re: Just in case you think I'm heartless and miserly

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

As if I could think any such thing when thus far I'm the only person who's ticked both 'under no circumstances' boxes!

[augstone.livejournal.com]

exciting news about 'the wild highway'! i really need to read 'bad wisdom', i own it and have been meaning to get to it for years. loved '45'. and strangely had 'julian cope is dead' stuck in my head the other day.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Bill's paragraphs of Bad Wisdom are in a vein you'll recognise from 45; Z's, to put it mildly, are not.